Skeletal
by aceofSpades44
Summary: At some point I should've figure that the other shoe would drop. Things were going too well for me up until now. But I guess that's what happens when you've managed to get your life in order, someone throws a wrench into the plan. At least things can't get much worse...right? [SI-OC]
1. Chapter 1: - Stapes -

(============)(Description)(============)

 _At some point I should've figure that the other shoe would drop. Things were going to well for me up until now. But I guess that's what happens when you've managed to get your life in order, someone throws a wrench into the plan._

(============)(Chapter 1: New Beginnings)(============)

It's one of those things that you don't really think about until it's too late. What do you want to do before you died?

Me, I would've liked to have graduated college, established myself as an animator, moved out of my parents' house, gotten into a relationship that lasts, or just a relationship in general, and just overall burned my own path through life. Maybe it would also be cool to go travelling, see sights and experience cultures wholly different from what I was used to.

None of that's really an option now anymore though.

I don't really know what happened to be honest. I'm not even sure as to whether or not I died or if this was all just the delirious ramblings of my brain in a coma. I just know that at one point my memory just stops at a point where I'm in one of the study rooms at college and now here we are. I'm stuck in some kind of sensory deprivation zone. I can't see, hear, touch, smell, and I guess taste, though there's no way to really test that last one.

There's just nothing.

Nothing but my own mounting insanity at the feeling. I was always one of those people who needed some kind of outside stimulus. I always needed to feel like I was doing something, or experiencing something, to remain calm and controlled. It wasn't ADD or ADHD, I got tested for that when I was younger. I was just energetic as a person I guess.

But now I didn't have that, and it was maddening! What's worse is that I couldn't do anything to change it. I couldn't go play videogames, I couldn't go watch movies, draw, or hell even work on my schoolwork.

It was definitely an "I have no mouth, yet I must scream" kind of situation.

So, when I started to feel warmth and a slight pressure, I was _so_ relieved! Finally, there was stimulus! Finally, there was something I could interact with!

I pushed against the pressure, pressing against it until I was satisfied with how much it pressed back and then relaxed. I nuzzled into the warmth, letting it heat my body and fill me with a sense of contentment.

I felt happy.

Then the pressure started to increase. It started to get uncomfortable. I could feel something pushing me into something tight and constricting.

 _It hurt._

It was agonizing being in that constricting spot, made all the worse because whatever was pushing me was taking its sweet ass time getting me through. I tried to worm my way through, but I couldn't, I just didn't have the strength to move my arms or legs against what I was being pushed through.

But then the sensation changed, my head felt kiss of cold as it came out the other side.

And then the screaming started.

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I was wrapped in something. I tried opening my eyes, and I was blinded when I did! It was so goddamn bright! Someone turn down that light for god's sake! And the noise! It was like everyone was shouting but not at the same time! Everybody shut up and talk quieter!

But they didn't. They kept going. It's too loud! It's too bright! This blanket feels scratchy! And stop this thing that's bouncing me!

 _Makeitstopmakeitstop_ _ **makeitstopMAKEITSTOP!**_

I wound up passing out.

(============)(============)(============)

I awoke to the feeling of being held. There was a slight back-and-forth movement that I could feel, and there was this noise coming from somewhere nearby. I dared not open my eyes, instead trying to make out what situation I was in this time from what I could hear. The last thing I wanted was to get blinded again.

I tried to move my arms and legs, but they were held largely in place by some kind of blanket that I was wrapped up in like a human burrito. So I started wiggling slightly, trying to worm my way out of the blanket's hold. No dice. I just couldn't seemingly get enough strength into my limbs to do what I wanted to do.

Which started to make me feel sufficiently worried. Last I checked I was a 22-year-old guy. I wasn't exactly the most in-shape, but I'm pretty sure I had enough muscle strength to wiggle my way out of this blanket. So, the fact that I wasn't able to was scaring me a bit.

Then I heard something that sounded like a woman cooing. It was shocking enough for me to hear that my eyes shot open and I was greeted by the concerned face of a woman who was cooing into my face. Her finger, was poking into my noise and cheeks. It was painful, but little presses and scratches to try and illicit a reaction.

And my god this lady was fucking massive! Like I'm not talking about her being fat, for all intents and purposes she looked fine. No, she was huge in her proportions. Her face alone looked almost as large as I was! Like the distance from the top of her head to the bottom of her chin was almost my entire 6'3" height!

And her hands were similarly huge. That finger she was nuzzling into my face looked two feet long! I was in the arms of a giant! I started struggling, and trying to weasel my way out of her grip and get the hell away from this giant of a woman.

And then she did something I didn't expect her to do. She took her finger away, and started loosening the blanket that had held me prisoner. Immediately my hand went up to shield myself from any further approaches by this woman.

And instead of seeing the long, bony fingers of my hands, I saw the short fat fingers of a baby.

What.

The woman presented her finger to me, and out of a _desperate_ want to prove what I was seeing wrong, I grabbed hold with both my hands.

My fingers wrapped around the massive digit.

I was seeing the truth.

I wailed until I passed out.

(============)(============)(============)

The next succession of days was a case of me just trying to further figure out what kind of loopy land I'd just entered. I was a baby now all right. No idea what my name was. I couldn't quite figure out what they were saying. I think they were speaking Japanese, but I wasn't sure.

I watch dubs. Sue me.

Regardless, I was rapidly growing discontent with my current situation. I mean I could barely move outside of flop around uselessly. Fuck these baby-caliber muscles and non-solid bone structure.

So I tried to spot what I could as I lay in my crib or got ferried around by the woman who I assumed was my momma. I got a lot of a "traditional Japanese house" vibe from this place. Like I'm talking the kind of place you'd get if your house was more historical in nature but got restored with a few semi-modern amenities.

Nothing modern that I could tell though. Most I saw was an old-as-shit looking radio.

So, either I got slammed back in time here, or I was stuck with a family that was _really_ down in the dumps financially.

Now as for my new mom, she looked to be in her early-to-mid-twenties form what I could tell, with a pair of brown eyes, and her equally brown hair done up into a bun. She was always done up in a white kimono, one that looked entirely utilitarian. But the one thing I think was the most noticeable about her was the two red dots on her forehead. I know I've seen that symbol somewhere before, but I can't place it.

I think Hindus do something similar, but its one dot in the middle of the forehead instead of two. Or is that another religion I'm thinking of? I wish I had Wikipedia so I could look that up.

I had yet to meet anyone else besides my new mom, though. The only question I could think of was whether or not she was alone. And did I have a dad, or was I a product of a "love her and leave her" kind of situation?

All these questions and more would not be answered. At least, not right away.

(============)(============)(============)

I'd started crawling by this point. I don't really know how much time had passed anymore. A few months at least. My hair was growing in.

It was white.

Not even joking on that.

There's also I a bit of a story there but I'll get to that a bit later.

Another thing I figured out was my name: Chinatsu.

I am now a girl. _Hoooooo boy_ that's gonna make puberty especially awkward. Even more so then having to go through it a second time.

Jury's still out on my family name though.

Now for the story about my hair. See everything with my mom had been going okay up until my hair started to grow in. After that, she started to act a little more paranoid about me. At first, I thought that was just who she was, paranoid in general. But no, her paranoia only seemingly extended to me. And this went beyond just making sure the house was baby-proofed and that harmful objects were out of my reach. This was "keep the blinds closed and doors locked lest the baby see the light of day" levels of paranoia.

After that I couldn't even look out the window. Mom refused to let me go outside. I was locked inside the house. The tiny, tiny, _tiny,_ house. It was basically three rooms. The bedroom, where my crib and mom's bed were. The bathroom, which connected both to the bedroom, and the large main common room, which held the kitchen, dining table and a main seating area. There was also a walk-in storage closet admittedly, but that was more of a place for mom to store extraneous crap she didn't need so I don't count it as a room.

So as of right now, I was just trying to keep myself entertained with stuff around the house. Luckily my mom had ready access to writing materials. Thus, a large portion of the paper around the house were taken up by my drawings.

Which actually kinda infuriated me a little bit. I'd lost some hand-eye coordination, which meant that my drawing skills had regressed to the point of being chicken-scratch.

Ha ha fuck that noise! I am going to _drill_ that shit until I can draw a face that doesn't look like a misshapen potato!

Oh yeah, also need to learn how to walk. Kinda forgot about that part. I'd like some degree of locomotion!

And learn to speak Japanese better. Okay I'm not quite sure if it _is_ Japanese or not but it sounds similar enough that I was willing to make that guess. I'd sorta picked up on _some_ of the words mom had been saying to me around the house. Now I just gotta expand my vocabulary.

(============)(============)(============)

At this point I am getting entirely fed up with mom's bullshit paranoia. I'd just celebrated my first birthday and had yet to be brought outside. I'd yet to even look outside since my hair grew in. If my drawings hadn't been put into piles in the bedroom or wherever else they'd fit, we'd have new wallpaper by now.

Luckily, I think mom had figured out that at the rate I was going, she was gonna run out of space and possibly money long before I ran out of steam.

So, she brought in books for me to read. And to teach me better Japanese apparently.

Well it was at least something to do.

But let me tell you how much it sucks to not really know how to read. Because I find it incredibly frustrating. Frustrating enough that I wish I had enough hand-eye coordination to kick over our "living room" table.

(============)(============)(============)

I've already broken something out of frustration. The chewing-out I got from mom did not deter me from expressing how fucking done I was with being locked up all the time. That's what happens when you're one-and-a-half and have yet to see sunlight that doesn't filter through the windows.

Mom said that it was too dangerous out there for me. That inside I would be safer.

I didn't buy that shit for a goddamn second. So y'know what? I'm done with this shit. Tonight, I'm sneaking the fuck out of the house.

(============)(============)(============)

That night I made a show of falling asleep when mom put me to bed. Only when mom crawled into her own bed and shut off the light did I put my plan into action. I began to wait. I waited for about an hour, waiting for mom to slip off to sleep.

Then I clambered over the edge of the crib and slowly lowered myself to the floor. I didn't have to opent he bedroom door, mom tended to keep that open. Why I have no clue. But it suited my purposes quite nicely, as now I could slip out of the room without having to make any noise.

I reached the front door without any sign that mom was waking up. I grabbed the handle, turning it slowly as to not make any sudden noise. Slowly I pulled it open, slipped through, and slowly closed and turned the handle back so that the door.

And after that I was home free. I could feel the night breeze and smell the slight dampness of the night air. The moon was full, hanging clearly in the sky and bathing the surroundings in cool light. Around me looked like a village. Houses that looked to be the same size as mine were arranged haphazardly, interspersed with small, fat-trunked trees and scraggly bushes.

So, then I walked. It would just be a short walk. I'd be home in maybe an hour. Just enough for me to get my fix.

That turned out to be a mistake.

"What are you doing out here?!" I heard a voice whisper behind me. I spun and came face to face with my mom. She looked positively livid.

And at that point I knew where I'd fucked up.

She marched right up to me and grabbed my hand roughly. "Come Chinatsu! We're going back to the house!" She said keeping her voice down. I squirmed as her hand squeezed down on my hand uncomfortably, but otherwise did nothing to resist as she dragged me back to the house.

She pulled me inside before closing the front door and locking it with a loud click of the bolt sliding into place. "What were you thinking, Chinatsu?!" She hissed out, still trying to keep her voice down. Nevertheless she made her disappointment and frustration with me very clear with the way she loomed over me in the middle of the kitchen space, a glare that could strip paint off the walls on her face. "I told you, the outside is too dangerous for you!"

"But I want to go outside!" I said meekly, giving my admittedly still-basic grasp of Japanese a whirl.

"That's not an excuse!" She snapped, her voice hissing through the room. "You _do not_ go outside, do you understand?!"

I nodded, nervously scratching at my hand and pointedly looking away from mother. "Yes okaa-san…"

"Look at me, Chinatsu!" Her hand suddenly wrapped around my chin, dragging my gaze towards her face. "Do you understand?!" She repeated.

I nodded as much as I could with her hand holding my chin. "Yes okaa-san!"

She let go of me. "Get in bed." She ordered, pointing to the bedroom. I lumbered into the bedroom, mom eventually picking me up and placing me into the crib before wrapping me up in my blanket just enough to keep me warm.

It's then that her gaze softened again, and she smiled at me. "I'm sorry for yelling…" She said.

"I'm sorry for leaving momma." I said in return, though I'm not sure if I actually meant that.

She huffed, before reaching over and shutting off the light. "Sleep tight, sweetie…"

(============)(Author's Notes)(============)

 _Meh, figured I'd give it another go at a Naruto SI. Not sure how this one will turn out but I like to think I have a much better handle on what exactly is going to go down this time._

 _So welcome to Skeletal. Hope you enjoy your stay!_


	2. Chapter 2: - Scapula-

(=============)(Chapter 2: Scapula)(============)

Things continued as normal the next day. Mom took away my drawing privileges for the day and assigned me written homework based on a few books she'd brought home. Both to test my knowledge of reading and writing and to test my knowledge of what was contained within. I struggled with the reading, I'm big enough as a person to admit it. I was used to the alphabet, which was a combination of clearly defined symbols to create words and phrases, and a smattering of other symbols to denote punctuation. It was a simpler way of writing, at least for me. Maybe because I was used to it.

Now I had to worry about combinations of Kanji and the various Kana, which was a fuckload more complex as you had to take into account the context of the overall idea you were trying to get across. Plus, with the fine details of each you had to be precise when writing or reading. Even a slight difference could wind up completely unravelling everything, even f it was still pronounced the same.

Basically, writing in Japanese fucking sucked and I hated it. And it showed in my first "homework paper", for lack of a better term. Mom, to her credit, didn't seem disappointed or anything with what I had turned in. I think she had expected that. Granted she wasn't exactly happy either, the slight crease of her brow was enough to show she saw much to be improved.

And so, she doubled down, teaching me as best as she could and giving me pointers for a grand total of three hours a day. Honestly, as much as it might be amazing for a fucking one-year-old to stay still long enough to learn for three hours, it was a welcome distraction for me when I couldn't even leave the house.

The next homework paper I turned in, while still flawed, was a marked improvement.

And so now I could actually read the books mom brought into the house, which was great as now my drawing slowed down t manageable levels for my mother, as now I had reading to do in my spare time as well.

And that's about when I had my first panic attack.

See, one of the books mom brought home was a history book. Specifically, it was a book titled "The Land of Water: A Children's Historical Guide". The actual contents of the book were heavily dumbed down, more like an elementary school workbook than an actual historical textbook. It was also heavily…edited to portray the titular Land of Water in the most positive light possible.

The first thing that scared me was the name of the book itself. Then I cracked it open and saw the table of contents:

Shinobi States and Founding

The Founding of the Village Hidden in the Mist

The Fist Shinobi War

The Second Shinobi War

Stabilization of the Shinobi Clans

The Third Shinobi War

My mind started to race. This was…this was the history of the Land of Water and the Village Hidden in the Mist. The same village responsible for the culling of anyone with a Kekkei Genkai, believing them untrustworthy. The same village that had been controlled by Madara Uchiha in secret up until Mei Terumi took over. The same village that had earned the title, Village of the Bloody Mist.

Then the two, red dot symbol on my mom's forehead flashed through my mind.

It was about then that I passed out, waking up to find my mom standing over me as I lay in her bed, wrapped up in blankets. I gazed wide-eyed at her as she asked me what was wrong. I couldn't answer. How do you answer that question? I just found out I was born in bloodthirsty and doomed clan? I just found out I was born in a land that was as close to civil war as it could possibly get?

So, I kept quiet about it, and told mom I was fine and that I didn't know why that had happened.

Needless to say, that book disappeared the next day. There were no more history books that came through the door after that.

(=============)(===========)(============)

Today I turned three.

I'd long since stopped asking mom to let me go outside. Not because she'd finally worn me down and made me accept that I was never leaving. It was more that I just didn't want to leave, for two reasons.

One, I knew how bloodthirsty and aggressive the members of the Kaguya clan could be. I think mom was an exception, or that it was a trait specific to the men of the clan. I'm honestly going to go with the former in that case.

Two, I knew that the clan feared the _Shikotsumyaku_ , and I had a gut feeling that my hair color had something to do with it. Now admittedly this was only a guess as I hadn't been able to make it work, though that might be because fuck-all clue how to use my chakra. But with mom's paranoid obsession with me being unseen and the peeks I could get of the people outside and their lack of white hair, I could hazard a guess. Kimimaro had white hair as well, and honestly I looked like a younger version of him if he had blue eyes.

So long story short, I am taking precisely zero chances. The last thing I want to do is get captured by the rest of the clan and locked up in a cave only to be brought out when the clan moved to start murdering the Hidden Mist.

I didn't want to be separated from mom, and I didn't want to die. I'd just started this new life, I'd at least like to get to twenty again before I died.

I think that's why it hurt to look at mom now sometimes. When she smiled all I could think of was how she was going to wind up dead.

…

The worst part was not knowing how long I'd have to wait for that to happen

(=============)(===========)(============)

I wanted to make a plan for how I could deal with the clan's eventual destruction. Unfortunately, with my present situation there wasn't a whole lot I _could_ do. I had no idea how to use chakra, and as much as I wanted to ask mom, she'd never brought in a book that even passively mentioned the subject. There wasn't much I'd read that even mentioned ninja either, so getting there by asking about ninja was not an option.

And without chakra, that gave me few options of what I could do to defend myself when the Hidden Mist wiped out the Kaguya Clan. In other words, I'd be fucked when that happened. As much as I wanted to just pack stuff up or write down contingencies, I couldn't in this tiny-ass house with mom almost always watching out for me. If I tried to write in, say, English to act as some kind of code, then she'd likely catch me and ask what I was doing and how I learned to do that.

Honestly, I think a lot of this was by design on my mother's part. I think she didn't want me to follow that kind of life, and if I was born in the Hidden Leaf or something, I might've done that.

But I hadn't been. I'd been born in the Land of Water under the purview of the Hidden Mist in the Kaguya Clan. That had effectively eliminated the option of a peaceful civilian lifestyle from my list of futures.

If I wanted to live, I was going to have to learn to fight.

And I was going to have to learn to fight on my own terms.

(=============)(===========)(============)

A couple months after I turned four is when I finally figured out how to chakra.

Which was a major milestone for me, so I allowed myself a small victory celebration. It consisted of dancing around the house like a loon the minute mom stepped out for groceries.

How did I do it? I attempted to get a piece of paper to stick to my hand. I calmed my mind and reached in, trying to feel out whatever it was that was special about chakra. It took…a _long_ bit of searching, months in fact, but eventually I felt it.

Have you ever gone outside and put your ear up against a streetlamp pole and heard the sound of electricity running through it? Well it kinda felt like that. A buzz of energy deep in my core that slowly radiated out and into my fingertips and toes.

As for manipulating it, that was less…pushing or forcing it to do what you wanted and more guiding it towards the goal you had in mind. I made the mistake of trying to force it and all that happened was that I got stupid tired and collapsed onto my bed.

Oh yeah, I have a bed now. Should'a mentioned that. It's crammed into a section of the bedroom where my crib used to be.

Okay, getting a bit off track here.

Anyways, I eventually decided that, if I could manage to accomplish something with my chakra, then I could conceivably give myself a fighting chance in hell if the Hidden Mist came a-knockin'. So that eventually led to me drawing a dot onto my palm, because that's apparently how to help yourself focus with this stuff, and then trying to get a piece of paper to stick to my hand.

Months of practice in secret when mom stepped out to do whatever it was that she did, and soon I managed to get a piece of paper to stick to the flat of my palm.

I was too tired at the time to actually celebrate, so instead I went to my bed to take a nap and put off any celebrating until the next time mom left the house. Cue me dancing around like a girl who'd just accomplished the most amazing thing ever.

On a related note, I still can't dance worth shit.

I give precisely zero fucks about that right now.

(=============)(===========)(============)

I broke my arm but also didn't today.

I don't quite know how it all happened. All I know is that I was in the middle of the main living room drawing with papers scattered about the room. Mom had called me up to the kitchen space to help her prepare dinner. Having long ago exhausted my creativity for the day, I got up to give her a hand. I stepped on one of the pages I'd left around me, and it slid across the tatami mat beneath. I slipped, my upper arm hitting the table and being squished against my body.

I felt something crack and pain flared up my arm.

I stared screaming.

Mom ran to my side, cradling the arm.

 _Ithurtithurtsithurtssomuch!_

I just wanted it to stop!

I felt more than I heard more cracks. I felt my bones shift. Mom's hands on my arm hadn't moved, but I felt her tense.

My arm started to hurt less and less. I opened my eyes to see the bone in my arm resetting itself.

Only when the pain had been reduced to a dull throb did I give my arm a test flex. Tender but moveable and completely intact.

I glanced to mom. My heart sank. She looked horrified.

I think it was more because this was confirmation on what she'd feared I'd be born with, because she soon shook herself out of it and pulled me into a tight hug.

"It's okay sweetie." She cooed, her voice shaking. "Everything's okay, you don't need to worry."

I wanted to believe her when she said everything was okay, but deep down it felt like she was more trying to convince herself.

I had the _Shikotsumyaku._ I had the Dead Bone Pulse.

This was the absolute furthest thing from "fine" right now.


	3. Chapter 3: - Phalanges -

Mother had decided that, after my little show of body-horror, that it would be best to give me something to defend myself. I knew exactly why. The Kaguya, clan was fearful of anyone with the Shikosumyaku. How a clan full of a bunch of psychotic professional tough-guys would be freaked out over somebody who can make their bones move was both funny and terrifying to me. And so, for my fifth birthday, Mom gave me a tanto knife. I don't think mom was a kunoichi or anything, otherwise she'd have started me on the ninja shit already. The only form of training I would get with the damn thing was "put the stabby end into the bad guy."

In other words, nothing remotely useful for dealing with magical ninjas.

But nevertheless, it was nice knife. Or as nice as mom could afford anyway. The sheathe and handle were made of a matching woodgrain stained darker to bring out all the different patterns. The two parts were separated by a polished steel divider that served to keep the blade attached to the hilt when drawn. It was just a bit too big for my hand to fully close around it, but if I gripped it with both hands I could probably keep a tight-enough hold on it. Not the best setup since it basically turned a dagger into a two-handed sword, but having a weapon was better than having no weapon if the worst came to pass.

I still haven't figured out how to do all the creepy bone dagger shit Kimimaro could do.

"Chinatsu." Mom said, looking me in the eyes as she handed me the knife. "You must keep this hidden…" She held up one of my sleeves, reaching into it and denoted the pocket sewn into the interior. "…in here." She held my face up so that I was staring into her eyes. "Promise me that you will keep this with you all the time."

"I will, Mother." I promised, reaching out to grasp at the knife. My fingers curled around it, but mom didn't let go of it. Not immediately at least. Her face was a mixture of sadness, anger, and nervousness. She didn't want to give me the knife. She didn't want to have to arm her only child in her own home. Not when said child was only five years old. But she let go anyway, handing the knife to me. She had to give it to me. That was just the nature of the world we lived in now.

I hated it too. It scared the hell out of me. I couldn't sleep right. I kept waking up in the middle of the night after I heard something move or shift. Sometimes just the house settling was enough for me to jump awake. Sometimes it was just nightmares that made me wake up. I was only five and already I was waking up with cold sweats.

I tucked the blade into the sleeve of my shirt, stowing it inside the hidden pocket. Mom opened her arms wide and I stepped into the hug. She needed a hug.

I needed one too.

(=======================)(=======================)(======================)

I jolted awake when I heard someone rooting around outside. The blinds in the bedroom were closed but I could still see the shadow cast by the moonlight around the edges of the window where the light still creeped in. Someone was outside.

Then came the knock at the door. Mom was out of bed in a heartbeat. She turned to me, where I'd been sleeping next to her during the night. We'd gotten rid of my bed since I'd shown the Shikotsumyaku, taking it apart and shoving it into the maintenance closet in the bedroom. It was to keep me hidden if anyone came to investigate the house.

"Chinatsu, get under the bed." Mom said calmly. Even in the dark I could tell she was anything but calm. I did what she asked without protest, scrambling under the bed even as more knocks resounded on the front door. "I'm coming!" Mom shouted to the front door, before draping the covers over the edge of the bed to hopefully shelter me from view. I had zero confidence it would work if it was indeed ninjas who'd come to check on us.

Mom hurriedly rushed out of the room towards the front door. I kept as still as possible as I heard the door unlock and open. Mom said something, but it was too quiet for me to make out. I couldn't see what was going on, the front door was out of line of sight to the bedroom. Even if it wasn't there was still this blanket in the way.

"Where's the child?" The person on the other side asked my mother. Male, low voice, growly and guttural. He spoke in a tone the said "I'm not going to tolerate bullshit".

My heart leapt into my throat. They knew about me?! How?! I'd never left the house! Except that one time but that was when I'd been _one!_ Why would they wait this long to come for me?!

"She passed away two years ago…" Mother said. A cover story. Most people had probably seen mom walking around pregnant with me. It would be a good way to avoid suspicion of that.

I heard a loud _smack_ and my mother scream before someone hit the ground. I flinched. _He'd just hit my mother._ "I'm not here for the lies! I'm here for the girl!" He barked, marching into the house. I counted the footsteps, there was more than one person. I reached into my sleeve. My heart was pounding in my ears.

 _What was going to happen to me?!_

I heard my mother scream at them to stop. I heard someone strike her again and tell her to shut up. I saw the shadows of two sets of feet stride into the room from beneath the blanket. I drew the blade out of my sleeve. The blanket was suddenly lifted off the bed, and I lunged with the knife towards the pair of legs. I felt something hit the back of my head.

It all went black.

(=======================)(=======================)(======================)

I slowly blinked myself back into consciousness, shifting on what felt like sold earth and rock. I opened my eyes and had to take a minute to realize that I wasn't actually blind, but that it was just dark where I was. Where am I anyway?

"Mom?" I called out groggily. No response. "Mom?!" I called out again.

"You're mother's not here." A small voice called out from the dark and I squeaked in surprise, flinching. I started scanning the room, trying to spot someone in here from the shadows. Whoever it was sounded like they were about my age, but there was no way to be 100% sure of that. "Over here." They repeated, and I followed the sound of the voice. I could see a shock of white in the dark if I squinted really hard. I started trying to make my way towards them, but my face hit something hard and rounded and I cursed.

I started feeling around with my hands, trying to figure out what I'd hit. It was horizontal, rounded bar…connected to a vertical bar…and another vertical bar…connected to another horizontal bar. I felt a metal lock holding some of the parts together. I was in a cage. In a cave. Which means that that other person was…

"Who are you?" I asked the other person, voice shaking.

"My name is Kimimaro…" He said plainly. Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck! I was in the cave! I was in the prison cave for the Kaguya clan! No. Nonononono! What had they done to mom? Was she okay?! I don't know and that scared me. They hadn't killed her for having me, did they? The fact that I wouldn't be surprised with the Kaguya doing that scared me more than the fact I was in this cave was surprising. I wanted mom to be okay. I wanted to be able to see her again.

My head shot back up to stare at Kimimaro. He'd said something, but I'd missed it. "What?"

"I asked what your name was." He said.

"Uh…Chinatsu." I fumbled with my name. I hadn't had to introduce myself to anyone before then. We went silent after that. I didn't want to say anything, I didn't feel like talking to anybody. Right now, my brain was trying to come up with a way to get out of here. Trying and failing. I had no idea how to pick locks, I had zero confidence in my ability to be able to cut through these bars even if I could make a knife or ax. Which I can't, because I had no idea how to use my Kekkei Genkai. Even if I could, I was going to have to do it silently and quickly because these were ninjas I was dealing with here. And after that I'd have to deal with those same ninjas when I tried to sneak out.

And I was five.

"Why are you here too?" Kimimaro suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"Why are you in here too? You must know what you did right?" He elaborated. His voice was shaking, barely but it was there.

I looked down at my feet, even though I couldn't really see them outside of a slight shift in the lighting where my skin stood out against the rock. I knew why. I had my clan's, _our_ clan's kekkei genkai. The one they feared. The one they felt needed to be controlled and contained. I don't know anything about Kimimaro outside of his presence on the Sasuke retrieval mission, and his fight with Lee and Gaara. Should I tell him?

"It's because of my bones…" I said sadly.

"You're bones?" He sounded surprised.

"Yeah, I can shorta shift them…and when I broke my arm it healed fast." I explained. "At least, that's what I'm guessing…"

"Oh…so then you're like me…" He said. "But then what did I do wrong…? He muttered to himself, sounding disappointed. No…pained. Like what he'd gotten out of me wasn't what he'd wanted to hear.

"I don't know…" I admitted. I actually didn't know enough about Kimimaro to know for sure if he hadn't done anything before this. I only knew that I didn't deserve to be in here. I _knew_ I'd done nothing wrong. Mother and I had just been minding our own business when the clan had busted in a taken me away.

Silence descended on us once again. The two of us separated by our respective cages.

The only thing that broke that silence was when some hateful bastard of a Kaguya showed up and slid food under the bars of our cages with his foot. I didn't go for the food until he'd left, instead having curled up into the back corner.

But once he left I dug into the terrible table-scraps of food. I was hungry…


End file.
